Andre Greipel won stage one of the 2016 Tour of Britain, with two British riders finishing in the top ten.
Chris Latham of Team Wiggins finished eighth and Dan McLay of the Great Britain Cycling Team ninth, in a fast and furious sprint behind the German road race champion.
Mark Cavendish missed out after being involved in a crash on the final bend, which also took out his Olympic omnium rival Elia Viviani of Team Sky.
British rider Peter Williams of One Pro Cycling will start stage two in the king of the mountains jersey, after winning two of the three points climbs, while fellow breakaway rider Tom Moses won the most combative rider award.
A breakaway, containing three British riders, One Pro Cycling’s Williams, JLT Condor’s Moses and NFTO’s Jonathan McEvoy, left the peloton behind at the very start of the day’s riding and soon developed a gap of over three minutes.
The group was allowed to stay away for over three hours, but as the race entered the closing 20km, the pack began to close in on the five leading riders.
With 10km left to ride, the peloton had engulfed the plucky quintet and the race began to pick up pace as the sprint team trains started to form.
The big names from the world tour were at the fore as the peloton rounded the final bend with 500m to go, and Lotto Soudal’s powerhouse sprinter Greipel was able to hold off attacks from all sides to cross the line first.
There was a crash which took out Cavendish and Team Sky’s Olympic omnium gold medallist Viviani in the closing stages, ruling them out from contesting the victory.
Great Britain Cycling Team’s McLay and Team Wiggins’ Latham both finished within the top ten, sharing winner Greipel’s finishing time.
Stage one winner Greipel said: “Really nice to start off with a victory in the Tour of Britain – we reached our goal in the first day and everything else is on top.
“We reached the yellow jersey together – I’m very proud of the guys today.”
Stage two of the Tour of Britain will start in Carlisle and finish in Kendal, after taking in the fearsome ‘Struggle’ climb.
Follow all the action on the live blog from 11am and on ITV4 from 1pm.
